Lord Duckhunter

It's not a strange thing to say, Milliband and his family avoided some Inheritance Tax and his brother channels all non parliamentry earnings through "The office of David Milliband Ltd". The upshot meaning 20% tax is paid on those earnings rather than high rates of income tax.Perfectly legal, as I'm sure Philip Green's schemes are as well. You mention Barclays and Vodafone, yet The Guardians parent company use similar schemes to dodge tax.At least Vodafone don't put themselves up as the moral heartbeat of the nation whilst avoiding tax..........

What about people like Milliband? If we are asking Philip Green to stop his avoidence then surely the same should apply to him?

There is plenty of evidence that high rates of income tax stiffle the economy. If the answer to our problems was higher tax rates for the rich, then Thatcher wouldn't have needed to clear up the mess left by both parties in the 70's. The 50% tax rate was a purely political gimmick to appease the soak the rich brigade. When Heally tried to make the "pips squeak", we ended up in front of the IMF.

Tax aviodence by the Guardian's parent Company. http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/the-guardians-rank-hypocrisy-on-tax-avoidance/

In Mrs Thatcher's first budget the top rate of income tax was reduced from 83% to 60%, and the basic rate from 33% to 30%. The important thing about income tax is what it generates for the Govt. For years the lefties in this Country have used income tax as some sort of "fairness tax". Take the emotion out of it, and set the tax rates at a level that brings in the most revenue. Quite clearly if you tax the Sugars',Branson's and McCartney's of this world 98%, then they'll end up paying nothing. The 50% tax rate was a gimmick, a sop to the lefties in the Labour party who want the pips squeaking again. To the shame of The Tory's they haven't got the balls or convictions that Maggie had to reduce the burden. The working man is also taxed too much, how can we have a tax system that taxes someone and then gives him some of it back in a form of credits. If they need WFTC, then take them out of tax altogether. As for tax aviodence, it's not just the Phillip Green's and Lord Ashcroft's of this world. The "deed of variation" signed by David , Ed Milliband and their mother following their fathers death, reduced their inheritance tax liability to 60% from 100% on the property. He also set up "The Office of David Miliband Limited", any non-Parliamentary earnings are paid to this company, attracting 20% in corporation tax as oppossed to income tax.Personally, I can see nothing wrong with this lawful organsiation of his finances, but some people seem to have an issue with some minimising their tax liabilities, including many from the party he leads.

Agree with that, both must start next week. Personally, I'm not sure about the Lambert and Connelly combination, both are too one paced but it's hard because you can't leave either out.Hopefully De Ridder will streach defences a bit and create chances for them, because they can both stick it away............. Great support today, Leicester's was awful..........

Just got back, Thought the lads couldn’t have done any more second half. 2 different Leicester supporters complemented our side to me as we left, said we’ll be there or thereabouts. A bit of luck second half and we’d have won 4-3, great support as well.

Shilts, without a doubt............

Does anyone know what the standing situation is like. My nipper is going and he's not too keen on standing. If it's sit where you want and standing all game, I'll get there early and put him down the front. I went a few years back ( I think it was 3-2 defeat with Idiákez scoring a screamer) but really cant remember their standing policy.

Ever since Mrs Duck decided to retrain as a midwife in her 40's, I've been thinking to myself "I need to do something else". Having no real practical skills or a trade, nothing realistic jumps out at me. A few months back Mrs Duck suggested a driving instructor and as the weeks have gone on it's starting to appeal more and more to me. The last 20 years I've been managing people, coaching and feedback has been a major part of my job and I am willing to put the hours in and work unsocial hours. I've now started to tentatively look at this as a career move. On paper it looks great, working for yourself, ect ect. But, I'm sure it's not as rosy or as rewarding as the many ads claim. Does anybody have any knowledge or experience in this field, particulary if they entered the field later in life (I'm coming up 47). I would be interested in the pitfalls and failures and the reason behind those failures. The major issue I see is that having paid £20 for a lesson, I would want somebody who has been teaching driving for longer than 2 weeks. If I ever got up and established then I'm sure I could make a go of it. The limitted amount I know about it, I would think that provided you were good, reliable and professional, then it's all about generating customers, something that I feel I could do. I'm used to managing costs and the P&L side of business, so I'm hoping that I maybe a fit. I realise that it's not going to make me a fortune, but could bring some job satisfaction. I've started to research stuff on the internet, but there's just so much positive and negitive stuff on there, it's hard to see the wood from the trees. Any advise would be greatly received.

I dont have a clue whether exams are getting easier as I haven't seen a paper since I took mine. Having had 4 children my gut feeling is that there is more course work and more teachers teaching just to tick box's than there ever was in my day (and I'm not saying that's the teachers fault). I can not believe that our children have got brighter year on year, so have to conclude that the exams must be getting easier. I would suggest that today's children are no brighter than my generation, yet the exam results indicate that they are. If you saw some of the job applications I get from them nowadays, you really wonder if some of them went to school at all. I had a pretty **** poor education and a pretty bad attitude towards school,ending up with 1 O level and 7 CSE's, there was never any thought whatsoever of me going to Uni. Nowadays even with my lack of education I'd more than likely be off to study something and wasting another 2/3 years of my life ****ing it up, before entering the job market.That is the major change in education in the past 30 years, only the brightest and top kids went to Uni, now every Tom, Richard and Harry seems to go. Personally, I dont think that's a good thing, but others obviously think it is.

This has to be a wind up.

That's how I feel,but to come away with 4 wins and a draw from our first 5 is unbelievable especially with our previous starts over the years. For me Saturday was vital, home game that would have really dissapointed us had we not got maximum points. Even if we suffer a defeat at Leicester, it will still represent a fantastic start to the season..........

Like him or hate him, Reed has a far better footballing CV than Woodward. I dont think that anybody is disputing the role that Woodward carried out, it's just that he wasn't qualified to perform it, and certainly did not justify the huge wages he was paid.

Of course specific skills can be transfered from one sport to another, but that is not what we are talking about with Woodward. He was Director of Football, he was earmarked and talked about becoming a Football manager and was not just confined to his specific knowledge. had Woodward been brought in to coach some of the skills that are shared by football and Rugby (and paid accordingly) then there wouldn't have been an issue.

Andy Flower has done a great job with our cricket team, and has certainly turned them into hardened winners and changed the mentaility of the team. If NC was to appoint him to the SMS coaching staff, then quite rightly the men in white coats would come and take him away. The only difference between him and Woodward, is that Woodward likes to blow his own trumpet and somehow manages to convince people that sucsess in one sporting field, can be transfered directly to another. If that was the case, perhaps we should have made Brain Clough chairman of the England selectors for the 1976 West Indies series, perhaps we would have made them grovel after all............

Coulson's severance pay was a benefit related to the time that he worked for NI, it was just paid out in installments after he left. Once Tom Baldwin starts drawing his NI pension, is he not doing the same thing. Receiving income from a benefit earned whilst working at NI, even though he no longer works there?

I'm sure Tom Baldwin is in the same boat with a NI pension, should he resign?

Income and severance terms are not the same

Harry seems to have done ok without Clifford's fantastic training method since he left us. Clifford, on the other hand..............

Double Fantasy -John and Yoko. Years I waited for a John Lennon album, then he goes and gives us a Paul McCartney one. Yoko's stuff on there is pretty good (for her), but his stuff is just middle of the road pap.

My present employer didn't know the Severance package I got from my previous employment and quite frankly it's none of their damn business. Had Coulson been receiveing money for work he did for NI, whilst employed by Cameron, then that's a story. I would have thought that Peston would have known the difference between wages, and Severance terms.

The biggest loon's were the saint's fans that thought Lowe was onto something with all this nonsense............

Get Back-The Beatles King Harvest (Has Surely Come)-The Band Lazy days-Flying Burrito Brothers Roll away the stone-Leon Russell Fulsom prison Blues-Johnny Cash

I was abroad at the time of the riots, so missed a lot of the coverage. The punishments do seem to be harsh and whilst I am all for harsh sentances, they should be for 365 days of the year and not just because the media and politicans demand them. Had these sort of sentances been handed out for years and years, perhaps our young people might have thought twice about riotting, perhaps they would think twice before committing the anti social crimes that blight some of our neighbourhoods. These sentances are just a token jesture to the hard working honest people of this country, 6 months down the line we will be back to ASBO's and cautions as if the riots never happened.